Who is the son of perdition?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

There are two men in the Bible who are called “the son of perdition.” The first one that was given this shameful title is Judas Iscariot. We read of this inJohn 17:12, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” When Jesus first chose His twelve disciples, He had marked out Judas as the one who would betray Him. John 6:70-71reads, “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.” God had already foretold this betrayal in Psalm 41:9, “Yea, Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me.”

When Jesus ate the final Passover with His disciples He referred to this verse in John 13:17 and then in verse 21 He came right out and said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me.” What followed this is most solemn, for in verse 26 we read, “He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.” We read in verse 27 that “Satan entered into him,” and then those fateful words in verse 30, “He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.” Judas went out into the black of night and before the sun rose the next day Judas hanged himself and went out into “eternal night.” He is called the “son of perdition” because his act of betrayal resulted in “eternal destruction,” which is what the word “perdition” means. Acts 1:25 tells us that “Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” Judas had a choice to make and he chose to betray the very Son of God, and that choice marked his eternal destiny. The “son of perdition” went to “his own place,” into the place that Jude 13 calls “the blackness of darkness forever.”

In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 we read, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” This man will be the infamous Antichrist, who will pretend to be Mankind’s Savior. He will not only “imitate Christ,” he will “oppose Him” by exalting himself above God. He is called the “man of sin” because of his sinful character, and he is called “the son of perdition” because he too will share the same end as Judas Iscariot. You can read of his eternal destiny in Revelation 19:20 which says, “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” We also read in Revelation 20:10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (155.3) (DO)